The young white shark spent five months at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, in a million-gallon exhibit that was beginning to feel like a fish bowl.

So he became antsy and began to jump, as if to beg his handlers for freedom, and like mother birds they delivered him offshore and punted him from the nest.

Smartly, the junior apex predator chose a southbound journey toward warmer climes; he swam beyond Southern California deep into Mexico.

His is a realm without borders; he requires no passport.

Nor does he need a parent or guardian; though young, he possesses white shark instincts honed over millions of years.

But he is young, and still small.

He measured only 5 feet 10 and weighed 140 pounds when set free Feb. 5, wearing high-tech tags that may allow scientists to shadow him through much of the summer.

Years from now, if he can avoid serious trouble, he'll attain a great white size of perhaps 18 feet and 4,000 pounds.

Meanwhile, what an incredible adventure life must be. Like the previous white shark released after a lengthy aquarium stay, this one rounded Cabo San Lucas off Baja California's tip and entered the Sea of Cortez.

But he took a more direct approach and arrived much quicker, and his tags are longer-lived so scientists may learn much more this time around.

"We're like, 'Go shark, go!' " says Salvador Jorgensen, a researcher with the Tagging of Pacific Pelagics program at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station. "It's really exciting. But we're also biting our nails a little bit because he's just wandering through these heavily fished areas."

Stanford is the aquarium's lead partner in the white shark research program. Scientists, with the help of partners at Long Beach State and the Southern California Marine Institute, have learned that Eastern Pacific white sharks spend about three years eating fish in the Southern California bight, or off Baja and maybe in the Sea of Cortez.

After that they begin a new life phase. They develop different teeth, designed to kill elephant seals and other pinnipeds.

They gravitate either to Northern California or Guadalupe Island, 150 miles west of Baja, where they spend late-summer and fall near seal rookeries.

Extensive tagging of adult white sharks at both locations has shown they migrate each winter either to the Hawaiian Islands or a vast and featureless gathering place halfway to Hawaii, referred to as the White Shark Cafe.

It's not known why but perhaps mating is involved. Nor is it known whether Northern California sharks mingle with Guadalupe sharks, but there's no evidence of a Northern California shark visiting Guadalupe, or vice-versa.

And, it is not known to which group the juvenile shark now exploring mainland Mexico near Mazatlan will ultimately belong.

But his is an important mission: to help scientists identify critical nursery habitats that "are the key to learning how best to build protection for these animals," says Barbara Block, principal investigator with the TOPP project.

Because he's already at the southernmost known range of juvenile white sharks, scientists anticipate he will turn north and begin to explore the Sea of Cortez.

When the archival tag pops free July 2 -- the second tag is a positioning unit with a longer life span -- it'll reveal the shark's diving habits and temperature preferences.